Nasim-e-Kherad

Nasim-e-Kherad

The Divine Knowledge in Sheikh Ishraq’s View

Document Type : scientific Promotional

Author
Department of Education, University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
The present study uses a descriptive-analytical method to explain and analyze the divine knowledge from the viewpoint presented by Sheikh Ishraq (Master of Illumination). Sheikh Sohrawardi, unlike Peripatetic philosophers who regard abstraction from matter as the criterion for being intelligent and intelligible, maintains that “light” is the criterion for being knower and known, and since God is the ‘light of the lights’ and absolute light, and the truth of light is nothing except epiphany and the knowledge of perception is the very epiphany, God is, thus, the very epiphany and knowledge. The Peripatetic philosophers adduce the principle of causality to prove and explain God’s knowledge of things before and after creation through described forms. Sheikh Ishraq, however, maintains that the theory of Exalted God’s detailed knowledge of things through general scientific forms that are essential elements of essence entails numerous objections. The leader of illumination philosophy has a certain view regarding God’s knowledge of things (both abstract and material) in practice, and explains it in two ways – (a) proving the soul’s intuitive knowledge of itself, the faculties and the body, and (b) analyzing the truth of vision. He believes that due to Exalted God’s self-subsistent dominion of all beings and His illuminative and causal attribution to them, ‘the light of lights’ has intuitive knowledge of everything without needing any form or anything else, and the beings’ external existence is the very knowledge of the necessary being. The writer continues his article by analyzing and investigating Sheikh Ishraq’s view and explaining its strong and weak points.
Keywords

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